It doesn't seem like five minutes ago that HANNAH SCOTT played at Downend, supporting the wonderful Bella Hardy. That night she was captivating, singing a handful of songs that spoke directly to the hearts of everyone in the room. Her role as a Future Headliner was secured; just imagine what a whole set would be like, we all thought.
It turns out, of course, that a whole set by Hannah Scott is an hour and a half of spilled emotions, of love and life, of grief and joy. It is everything that makes life worth contemplating.
Much of her set is made up of her latest album, Absence of Doubt, an intensely personal record that says much about her relationship with her closest family. At times it is as though she has beckoned you into the most secret room in her house so that she can show you her treasured photographs.
Bigger Than My Body is about an overwhelming love and feels, suitably, anthemic. With Scott at a keyboard and Matt Helm on guitar, there's an undeniable feeling that you are in the presence of a serious songwriter. The emotions are so huge, handled with such skill, yet beautifully undercut by a high voice that shows vulnerability. This is the sort of song that you'd imagine Radio 2 loving, it would sit perfectly next to the likes of, say, Laura Marling and Ed Sheeran.
It is, however, when Scott sings of her family that all of that love is made most obvious. Clearly, her dad played a huge part in her life and two of her most arresting songs are about him. Carry You Out is precision tooled for audience tears. Dealing with the carrying of her father's coffin, it is full of quiet strength and total heartbreak. Never rising beyond a measured stride, it is a beautiful hymn to someone loved and much missed. My Dad & I is more upbeat, remembering happy times, and stays exactly the right side of sentimental.
Scott's mum gets a look in on In Your Light and it is, again, full of enormous emotions that push against her fragile voice. These songs are so personal it almost seems rude to listen to them, as though you’re eavesdropping on private moments. On the other hand, of course, they deal in the universal, they are those conversations that we, somehow, never get to have.
Helm’s shimmer-y, echo-y guitar twinkles gorgeously behind Shape - a song driven by anger and hurt - and Threads, adding further layers to Scott's intense feelings. Threads ploughs a similar furrow to the latest Katherine Priddy album, being about a childhood home, but has a lovely sing-along that brings the whole room together. Scott has, once again, plugged into something that everyone understands.
The support for the evening comes from CORUJA JONES, the indie-folk project of songwriter Dan Jones. Deliciously hazy and dreamy, all pulses are slowed as he unfurls cascading soundscapes. He plays everything from his latest EP, Undo, the five tracks simply beautiful and lyrical. Honesty Honestly carries hints of John Martyn while there's a tiny hint of Richard Hawley about The Shore. These songs are all about setting the mood, they're Folk by way of Shoegaze, they are the gentle breeze on a morning walk. So in touch with the surroundings was Jones that, on the lovely Little Space, even the birds joined in.
Both Scott and Jones have an uncanny way of helping us to embrace everything that is around us. From the natural world to our own, raw, emotions, the two of them remind us of all that is important.
Words: Gavin McNamara
Photos: Barry Savell
Photos: Barry Savell
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“Your music moved me to tears.”
This is the refrain contemporary folk artist HANNAH SCOTT regularly hears as she leaves the stage. The best stories elicit profound personal reactions and in the 15 years she has been writing and performing, Hannah has become a consummate storyteller. Her music is shaped by human stories, with family, in all its chaos and glory, sitting at the heart of her work. Her lyrics are powerful and poignant, and her voice feels strangely familiar, though you can’t quite put your finger on why. Her writing may be deeply personal but her music has a universal appeal that extends beyond the melodies you catch yourself humming days after listening to her songs.
The connection she forges with her audiences often finds its most profound expression in the stories shared by audience members after her performances: the woman whose elderly mother lost a sibling in childhood and is moved to tears by Boy In The Frame; the young father who, upon hearing My Dad & I, realises he wants to spend more time with his small children; the adoptive parents who, like Hannah as a step-parent, may not have been the first person to hold their child, but Love You Like I Did. A deep-rooted desire for this connection has always been the driving force behind her songwriting and live performances.
Hannah headlines this month's concert, when she will be joined on-stage by guitarist Matt Helm.
Getting the evening underway will be Coruja Jones, a songwriting project from Manchester-based musician and songwriter Dan Jones, originally hailing from Dudley in The West Midlands.
His latest record Undo delves into the healing process in different forms, examining the calm and the chaos that can come from attempted self-betterment, and witnessing and wanting to heal other's hardship, all through the lens of love. Expect dreamy, melancholic, indie-folk; beautiful songs with soaring high notes, combined with intricate, delicate guitar work into cavernous reverbs, which take aim at your heart.
Tickets for the concert, which takes place at CHRIST CHURCH DOWNEND on Friday 25 April 2025, are available online HERE and from MELANIE’S KITCHEN (cash only). They are priced at £14 each in advance or £16 on the door. Doors open at 7.00pm and the music starts around 7.45pm. This event is also included in our Spring Season Ticket.
There will be a bar, stocking cider, soft drinks, wine, hot drinks and real ale from Bristol’s HOP UNION BREWERY. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own glass/mug/tankard, as well as reusable bottles for water, as part of the drive to be more environmentally aware; there is a 50p discount for those that do. There will also be sweet treats available at the bar courtesy of Radstock-based THE GREAT CAKE COMPANY, as well as a prize draw, which helps to fund the support artists for each concert.
For further information, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or find us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, BLUESKY, YOUTUBE or TIKTOK.
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Watching THE ROSIE HOOD BAND is a bit like picking up a folky version of one of those Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls books. It's an evening full of little portraits of interesting people, of tales to swell the heart and inhabit your innermost thoughts.
Rosie Hood has been in Downend before, as part of the glorious Dovetail Trio, but tonight she's with her own band. Joined by Robyn Wallace on melodeon and Rosie Butler-Hall on fiddle (but, sadly, without the injured Nicola Beazley) this is a "very rare" outing as a trio. Even with one fewer, they are still a page-turning thing, filled with wonder.
Hood is, clearly, fascinated by the quiet pioneers, those that do the extraordinary but without fuss and nonsense. It's easy to see why; she is much the same. A Furlong of Flight tells the tale of Eilmer of Malmesbury, a monk credited as the first aviator (thanks to some home-made wings and the top of tower). It floats on eddies of sound, a lightness that is simply wrapped up in the air. Hood's voice has an understated power, it's as English as tea and scones and easy to get swept away in, while Butler-Hall's fiddle agitates the breeze, catching the paper-plane melody.
Ethel celebrates the life of Ethel Haythornthwaite, an environmental campaigner. It's Ethel that we need to thank for protecting the Peak District and she is someone entirely worthy of a damn good folk song. Hood, of course, provides a song full of the joys of the countryside, of roaming across fields, of revelling in the outdoors. It undulates, gently, as satisfying as a summer's hike.
Not content with commemorating fascinating people, Hood and her band love a great story too. Hannah Twynnoy was, possibly, the first person to be killed by a tiger in England, in 1703, so why on earth would you not want a song about that? You'd have to write it from the tiger's point of view though. Tyger Fierce, taken from their latest album A Seed of Gold, is a swirling circus, voices coming from all corners as Hood and Butler-Hall lead dizzying rounds in an odd time signature. Wallace stomps out percussion and adds a melodeon whirl as Hood's voice climbs through the madness, finally bursting for its cage. By the end, you are entirely on the tiger's side.
As much as Hood loves to craft her own stories, she's not averse to a brilliant cover version. Richard Hawley's The Wood Collier's Grave is a right ol’ foot-tapper, an old-timey bit of America, the see-saw fiddle kicking up a jig that’s enormous fun. I'll Mount the Air on Swallow's Wings, best known as an Unthanks song, is more gentle but equally glorious.
Right at the very heart of everything that The Rosie Hood Band do, is an inclusivity and a belief in the power of women. Roy Bailey's Everything Possible has a comrade-ly sway, a firm, gentle defiance, Hood brooking no argument, setting her shoulders against intolerance. Bread & Roses, too, reminds us of struggle and protest. Hood contends that, as much as we need bread, we need the good stuff too. For her, the "roses" are going to gigs, singing, and playing music. It's hard to argue. Les Tricoteuses, written by Jenny Reid, is a wonderfully modern folk song. It's full of anger and resistance, of strength and feminine cool. Butler-Hall's smoky, French fiddle marches, lock-step, with Wallace's percussion as Hood storms the barricades. It is as rousing a finale as you could wish.
The support for the evening came in the thirty-headed shape of the BRISTOL FOLK SINGERS. Christ Church Downend is made for a sound like this; wondrous harmonies and intricately layered polyphony celebrating the unique community of the human voice. The Harvest Song has a bell-ringer's clarity, it chimes across octaves, male and female voices sounding and over-lapping. There's a softness to All Things Are Quite Silent, an impressive control and delicacy considering the number of voices. Then The Cropper Lads raises the roof - thirty singers telling another story of defiance, thirty singers stirring the blood, thirty singers giving old words a new gloss.
Together, The Rosie Hood Band and the Bristol Folk Singers inspire dreams, they tell thrilling tales and spark the rebel in us all. The perfect Friday night.
Words: Gavin McNamara
Photos: Barry Savell
Photos: Barry Savell
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